Explanations aside
by DancingIsLikeFlying
Summary: One Shot. There's an odd occurrence at the Lyell Centre which leaves Harry and Nikki baffled.


**Hey everyone, so I'm new to writing fanfiction and I've found it to be a great creative outlet. I thought I'd start off with a one shot and see how it goes.**

**I hope you enjoy. **

**Reviews appreciated =)**

* * *

As she sat down to finish her last bit of paperwork that Leo had given her that morning, Nikki smiled to herself and looked over at Harry, certain he hadn't finished his work for the day.

"Still going?" she asked with a wry smile.

Glaring at her, he replied, "Do you even need to ask?"

"I suppose not."

Nikki looked back down at her work, and the two pathologists continued for a few minutes, the silence only being broken by the pair tapping away at their respective keyboards. Although, it wasn't unusual for Nikki to be sat at Harry's desk right now, she always thought it was so much nicer than hers, for the simple reason that it was Harry's.

She glanced at the screen with an accomplished smile and glided her way towards Leo's office.

"Harry, do you know where Leo is? I want to run something by him." she said looking back over at Harry, who was staring at his computer intently.

His eyes met hers, glanced into Leo's office and added, "I wasn't aware he had left the office."

"No, me neither."

"He's probably just in the conference room, or finishing off a post mortem. He had someone on the table today." Harry's gaze returned to his laptop as he continued his report. With one last look into the office, Nikki returned to her desk, but remembering she had finished her work moments ago, she took a walk around the Lyell Centre, finding herself in the conference room and looked out over the glass expanse into the cutting room. The room was sterilized and glimmered under the harsh clinical lighting but the colleague she expected to be stood there was missing from the scene. Leo wasn't in the building.

Seeing Nikki return with a concerned expression, and heading towards the office once more, Harry picked up the phone on his desk and attempted to contact Leo, only for Nikki to hear the vibrating and ringing object in Leo's coat pocket. She retrieved the mobile phone and with it still ringing, leant against the office doorway. Her apprehensive gaze locked on Harry.

He parted from his work, "Oh."

Looking back into Leo's office, Nikki noticed that his paperwork and laptop were still lying on the desk. "Harry, it's not just his phone, it's everything, why would Leo leave it?"

Taking his feet off the desk, Harry pushed himself up and joined Nikki in the office, leaning against the doorway opposite her. For a moment, they exchanged eye contact, the care for their father figure evident in their expressions. Harry laid a hand on Nikki's shoulder and closed the gap between them, "I'm sure everything is fine, Leo's a responsible adult and can look after himself".

Returning to his desk, Harry continued to work and after lingering a few moments longer, Nikki followed. Not convinced, Nikki decided to ring Janet, and following a rather short conversation, discovered that Leo wasn't at home. She sat there deep in thought; her past experiences left at the back of her memory for now. Where was Leo? Why hadn't he told someone that he needed to leave the office for a while? He'd been gone an hour or two. And before they knew it, their father figure had been missing in action for several hours.

* * *

Harry?"

Dosing off at his desk, a lethargic Harry opened his eyes and replied, "Hmmm?"

"How can you dose off when Leo is missing?" retorted Nikki.

Harry lifted himself from the slumped position he had found himself in, "Because it's 11pm and I'm still in the office working, when I should be in the pub, with you". He looked over at Nikki, his eye contact with her lingering a moment too long, before his gaze returned to his desk. Nikki smiled to herself at her colleague's comment before turning on him.

"Harry! Our colleague is missing and all you can think about is having a drink….grow up!" She glared at him with disapproval.

He walked over to her, evidently having upset her, "Nikki…I'm joking." He perched himself on the edge of her desk, and stroked her hair as she gazed up at him, "He'll turn up soon, I promise". She broke their eye contact, and they watched her fingers intertwining anxiously. Harry took the opportunity to lean over and softly kissed her head.

The intimate moment was interrupted by Nikki's desk phone, blaring at them, much to Harry's dismay. Her eyes darted to the phone faster than her hands could, but Harry picked up the receiver first.

"Hello, Pathology", stated Harry with a formal tone.

"Oh right…well thank you for contacting me…don't worry about the time…we'll make our way there now." With Nikki listening intently, he gazed into her eyes. Putting the phone down, he disconnected from her.

"Harry?" questioned the female pathologist.

"We need to go". Harry looked up at her, disappointment written all over his soft expression.

"Is it Leo? What's happened?" Nikki asked, interrogating her colleague.

"No, we have a body to look at; we've got to go." replied Harry, "Sorry". He took her hand in his, trying to comfort her and as he stood up, gently pulled on Nikki's hand expecting her to follow his lead, but he ended up balanced on the edge of her desk again. All she could think about was Leo. Her mind flitted between scenarios. Scenarios she had found herself in before. Nikki's thoughts spiraled out of control.

"Niks, it's late, you should go home. Don't worry, go and get some sleep, I can do this one alone. I'll drop you off on my way" He smiled at her reassuringly.

"I have a car, Harry" she replied, reminding the pathologist the she wasn't a child.

"I know, but you have things on your mind, and I don't want anything to happen to you" he responded, tailing off sheepishly towards the end of his sentence. It was obvious that Harry cared for her; that they cared for one another. He looked into her eyes and smiled at her, "Come on."

The pathologists grabbed their coats; Nikki hesitantly filed away a few pieces of paper into her bag and Harry gathered together the essential equipment he would need. He threw his arm around her shoulder and softly kissed her on the head once more and the pair headed towards the glass doors.

Before they could reach the doors, a tall gentleman strode through to meet the two of them.

"Leo!" Nikki cried.

Before he had a chance to reply, her arms were around his middle and Leo rested his head on hers, which was not usually possible. Nikki liked to wear heels around the office even though he thought it highly unpractical.

"Nikki?" he questioned not breaking their hold. He looked at Harry confused and then smiled. "Sorry, I had to leave the office for an hour…got a bit distracted."

"A _bit_ distracted?" laughed Harry as Nikki broke her embrace with Leo.

"Where did you go?" asked a relieved Nikki.

Leo looked her and smiled "It doesn't matter, I'm back now."

"Don't we get an explanation?" replied Harry as Leo walked past him towards his office. Where had his boss been for the past 6 hours?

"Umm…No…" answered Leo, smiling at them.

Leo entered his office, and with one last look at his colleagues, closed his door.

Harry sighed, bemused with his bosses behavior, "Right then, I've got a date with a crime scene, do you want me to drive you home?"

"Do you not think we should stay and talk to Leo?" questioned Nikki. Harry looked at her and thought "_Do you really think he'll tell us anything?_" The words didn't have to part from his lips for his best friend to know what he was thinking.

Nikki smiled sweetly, forgetting her previous question. "I might as well come with you now."

"Sure?" He didn't want to push it but he was secretly thrilled that he'd get to spend some more time with the woman he cared so much for. Nikki nodded making him break out a smile. Harry closed the gap between them, and threw his arm around her shoulders for a second time. "I reckon he's got another girl he's not telling us about…" he chuckled sarcastically.

"Harry!" exclaimed Nikki disapproving her work colleague's behavior. She didn't have to look up at him to know he was joking and shook her head as the pair walked out of the forensic pathology department. Under her breath, she muttered "You're such a child".

"Tell me something new." he laughed as they walked out of the Lyell Centre and towards Harry's car…


End file.
